VIVIsectVI (pronounced "Vivisect Six") is the fourth studio album by Canadian industrial music group Skinny Puppy. The title of the album is a pun associating vivisection with Satanism.[4] This is the only Skinny Puppy album on which Dave Ogilvie (credited as "Rave") is given songwriting credit and listed as an official member of the band. This was also the only album (until 2004's The Greater Wrong of the Right) to feature a photo of the band. Dave Ogilvie is not included in the photo. The cover artwork was done by Steven R. Gilmore, a longtime collaborator with the band; the photo was taken by Kevin Westenberg.[5][6]

The album was released in September 1988 by Nettwerk Records and was supported by the VIVIsectVI tour as well as two singles, "Censor" (titled "Dogshit" on the album) and "Testure". "Testure" maintained a steady position on Billboard'sHot Dance Music chart and would go on to be one of the groups most influential (and successful) singles.[7]VIVIsectVI was named as one of the best albums of 1988 by Melody Maker, being placed 13th on their End of Year Critics list.[8]

Contents

Skinny Puppy's primary goal with VIVIsectVI was to provide a vicious depiction of vivisection and shine a spotlight on other issues regarding animal rights.[9] The group's singer and songwriter Nivek Ogre explained his stance on animal testing to Vinyl Propaganda in 1988, stating the following:

When I was young, growing up, I always thought that animal experimentation was necessary, that there was some reason for it, that there was some good being done with it... [I'm now against] all of it. All animal experimentation. Every bit of it. My brother’s a doctor, too; it’s a very hardline stance. But, yes. I mean, the only reason we’re living longer nowadays is because of the food we’re eating, and the foods we’re not eating, and the preventative medicine that we’re taking upon ourselves, isn’t that correct?[4]

On the album's name, Ogre went on to say:

[It's] just taking a shot at what Jimmy Swaggart will do with Mr. Ed … we just thought, well, look at this …we’ll break down all the syllables, and we’ll add our own interpretation at the end, a roman numeral – and what do you have? You’ve got a sect, surrounded by 666, surrounded by evil.[4]

VIVIsectVI was released in September 1988 worldwide. The first several hundred copies released in Canada were in full color gatefold covers; later Canadian pressings as well as all pressings released in the United States were distributed in jewelcases. The sleeve of the Australian pressing states "Manufactured And Distributed by the EMI music group Australasia"; on the back of the case, however, it says that it was "printed in U.S.A.", implying that the sleeves were in fact made in the US.[5] This was the first Skinny Puppy release to contain a picture of the band and is also the only release which lists Dave Ogilvie as a full member of the band.[1] The CD version contains several extra tracks that had previously been featured alongside the albums singles. A somewhat altered version of "Punk in Park Zoo's" is featured on this version, ending with a "cartoonlike" pitch-shifting effect that is not featured on the version found on the "Censor" single.[5] The album's liner notes recommend that the listener "Play this music loud or not at all" and conclude with "As always to the green guy — To hell with any bullshit".[1]

The album was supported by two singles, "Censor" and "Testure". "Censor" is named "Dogshit" on the album, but the band decided that the single would not sell well if they had kept the original name.[4] "Testure" was accompanied by a music video which depicts a man (who presumably had been abusing his pet dog) being experimented on by a group of humanoid surgeons. According to Ogre and cEvin Key (Drums/Keyboards), the video was banned from airplay following a poll by Citytv (an associate of Canada's MuchMusic). According to the duo, the poll came out nearly split, but the video was ultimately banned by "the powers that be". Ogre speculated that the video's banning had more to do with "past merit", rather than the subject matter at hand.[12]